


The Agony Uncle

by AutisticWriter



Series: Asexual Awareness Week 2017 [1]
Category: Archie Comics & Related Fandoms
Genre: Aromantic, Aromantic Asexual Jughead Jones, Asexual Awareness Week, Asexual Character, Asexuality, Autism, Autism Spectrum, Autistic Archie Andrews, Background Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge, Bisexual Archie Andrews, Bisexual Betty Cooper, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Canon Asexual Character, Coming Out, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, LGBTQ Characters, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Veronica Lodge, One Shot, Queer Themes, Self-Discovery, Stimming, Trans Jughead Jones, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 20:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12465664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: The one where Jughead finds his friends all coming out to him, and ends up coming out himself too.





	The Agony Uncle

When Jughead thinks about it, it still makes him smile to think of how all four of them in his main friendship group are queer. And it makes him laugh when he remembers how he was the person his three best friends all came out to. It’s like he’s their resident agony aunt (well, agony uncle), there to give advice and reassure his friends. Except Jughead has never been the best guy to confide in and for a long time everyone, including himself, thought he was straight.

But he was the first one to come out in another way. Jughead came out as a trans boy when he was nine, shocking the teachers at their elementary school. But his parents had researched his rights, and made sure the school accommodated him. Which they did, thankfully. And so Forsythe Jones came out to his schoolmates one day in the playground, lamenting the new name his dad had helped him choose, and proudly showing off his new nickname. And everyone was so accepting, and Jughead felt so happy.

And he supposed that, after that moment, Jughead, the first kid in Riverdale to come out, was the best person to trust. And not that long after he came out, his friends started to follow.

Veronica was first. They were thirteen and in their last year of middle school, and Veronica had been looking really anxious the last few days. Eventually, the others noticed.

“What’s the matter, Ron?” Archie asked, playing with the Tangle Jr his dad had bought him the week before.

“Yeah, you don’t look so good,” Jughead added, concerned.

Veronica smiled awkwardly and mumbled something about exam stress. But Jughead wasn’t convinced.

And, sure enough, Veronica ran up to him on his way home from school, grabbing his arm. Jughead flinched away; he’s never really liked physical contact.

“Sorry,” she said. “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Course you can,” Jughead said, knowing this was to do with her anxious behaviour.

And so they walked to Jughead’s house, and his mom made them cocoa and they sat in his bedroom and talked. They talked about school and how relieved everyone was for Archie to have his diagnosis and how Reggie was being a jerk and basically everything there was to talk about.

But then Veronica’s face flushed and her voice dropped to a whisper as she said, “I need to tell you something, Juggie.”

He tried to look reassuring, despite worrying that this news might be really bad. But, luckily, it wasn’t bad at all.

“I think… Juggie, I think I’m a lesbian,” Veronica said, her hair falling forward across her eyes.

Jughead stared at her, a bit confused. “But… I thought you fancied Archie.”

“So did I,” Veronica said, sighing. “But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And I think I’ve realised that my feelings for Archie are really platonic. I love him as a friend, but not like that. No, I think I like girls.”

Jughead smiled. “That’s great, Ron. I’m glad you’ve figured yourself out.”

Veronica smiled back, her face still blushing. “Thanks.”

“And have you seen the lesbian flag?” he said, sipping his cocoa. “It’s real pretty.”

Veronica grinned, and she looked so happy and relieved.

“I’ll look it up,” she said. “Thanks, Jug.”

Jughead grinned and shoved a marshmallow into his mouth. “No problem.”

Archie was next, sidling up to Jughead in the corridor at school over a year later, his hands flapping at his sides.

“Hi, Jug,” he said, but Jughead saw anxiety behind his smile.

“Hi. You all right?”

Archie shrugged. “Don’t really know. Something’s been bugging me.”

“Well, do you want to talk about it?” Jughead said. “That might help.”

Archie smiled weakly. “Think so, yeah. Come with me.”

He walked off at his usual brisk pace, and Jughead had to hurry to keep up with him.

“Darn you, Archie Andrews,” Jughead said. “How dare you make me exercise.”

Archie laughed, flapping his hands again. “Sorry.”

He ducked into an empty classroom and Jughead followed, closing the door behind him. Archie sat on top of one of the desks and started rocking back and forth. He was clearly worried about something.

Jughead sat down beside him. “So what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, as such, but I’ve just been having… well, I’ve been having a sexuality crisis,” Archie said, his ears blushing deep red.

“Ah, I see,” Jughead said, starting to feel a slight case of déjà vu. He thought of Veronica and the lesbian flag badge pinned to her handbag, remembering how embarrassed she had been. “And… why’s that a problem?”

“Because I always thought I was straight but I think I’m actually bi and I don’t like change,” Archie babbled, flapping his hands harder. “And I’m just worried, because I don’t want to come out and then it turn out I’m wrong.”

Jughead sighed, shuffling closer. “It’s all right, Arch. I remember when I was questioning my gender, and that was one of my biggest worries: what if I turned out to be cis after all? But I’m not, am I? and it doesn’t matter. You’re young. You’re allowed to experiment and try different lables. And if you turn out to be wrong later on, so what? It’s not a race. If you think you’re bi, then you’re bi. If things change later, that’s not a bad thing.” He realised that he had babbled even worse than Archie, and smiled. “Does that make sense?”

Archie smiled and offered him a stick of chewing gum (a thing that went way back with them, a way to show each other affection without touching). He flapped his hands, but it was happy flapping instead of stress flapping.

“Yeah, it does,” he said, grinning. “Thanks, Jug.”

He smiled back and put his chewing gum in his mouth, getting a wave of déjà vu again. “No problem.”

Betty was last, only coming out to him last year. She was the least anxious, looking more confused that anything else, and she smiled as she flopped down beside him on the couch. And unlike the others, she got straight to the point.

“Guess who’s been questioning her sexuality, Jug?” she said, surprisingly casual.

Jughead smiled. “You?”

“Yeah,” Betty said. Her cheeks flushed slightly and she clasped her hands together. “Turns out I’m not as hetero as I first thought. I think I’m bi.”

“Cool,” Jughead said. “Welcome to the club.”

Betty smiled. “Thanks.

A few weeks later, Betty and Veronica started going out. But just like with every couple he saw, Jughead felt weird when he saw them hug and kiss. It was around then he started questioning his own sexuality.

He knew he wasn’t straight, but he wasn’t gay either. And he obviously wasn’t bi. But Jughead didn’t know of any other orientations. Basically, he was rather confused.

And, amazingly, it was Reggie who came to his aid. He was reading a book about LGBT history in the library one day when Reggie approached him.

“What you reading?” he asked, sounding sincere.

Jughead showed him the cover of the book. He half expected Reggie to laugh, but he knew that wasn’t his style. Reggie may have been a bit of a jerk, but he was never transphobic towards Jughead. There was a big difference between being a jerk and a bigot, and Reggie was clearly a jerk.

Reggie sat down opposite him. “My brother came out last week. I told him about you and your little… gang.”

“Queer gang?” Jughead suggested.

Reggie nodded, obviously knowing that it wasn’t his word to say. Jughead and his friends used the word queer a lot, but Reggie knew queer was a word only queer people could say. Yes, he was definitely more of a jerk.

“Yeah, that. And he was impressed.”

Jughead smiled. “What did he come out as, if that’s all right to ask?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Reggie said. “He’s practically shouted it from the rooftops. And he’s come out as asexual.”

“Huh?” Jughead said.

“Asexual. Don’t you know that? I thought you were up on all that LGBTQ stuff.”

“So did I,” Jughead said, and he flicked to the index at the back of the book.

Soon, he was reading all about asexuality. And it amazed him, because this was him. It was all there: never having crushes, not having an interest in relationships, all of it. It was amazing. And Jughead read further, reading about the Split Attraction Model and the idea of being aromantic too. So that’s why he hated romance movies and seeing people kiss. He was obviously aroace!

He must have been pulling a face, because Reggie laughed.

“All right there, Jug?” he said. “You look like you’ve had a eureka moment.”

Jughead looked at him and smiled. “I think I have. Thanks, man.”

Reggie didn’t seem to know what he had done, but he smiled. “No problemo.”

Soon, Jughead gathered Archie and Betty and Veronica, and he told them all about his discovery. And they were all so happy for him. And Jughead was so happy too.

He finally felt like he knew his whole identity. He was trans and aroace and proud! He finally knew who he was, and no one could take that feeling away from him.


End file.
